Overview
Rusty Staub, a former Met with an up-close and personal view of many of the team's strongest players, recalls every year of the Met's history and selects the all-time greatest players in this account. Featured players and managers include Gary Carter, Mike Piazza, Bud Harrelson, Jose Reyes, Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Gil Hodges, and Davey Johnson.
Author Biography
Rusty Staub is a former player for the New York Mets, a club ambassador for the team, the founder and chairman of the board of the New York Police and Fire Widows and Children's Benefit Fun Foundation, Inc., and the president of the Rusty Staub Foundation. He is also a gourmet chef, a restaurateur, and a philanthropist. Phil Pepe is the author of more than 40 books on sports, including collaborations with Yankees legends Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, and Whitey Ford. He is a former Yankees beat writer for the New York Daily News and a former president of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Keith Hernandez is a former first baseman for the New York Mets and a baseball analyst for the team on SportsNet New York and WPIX broadcasts.
Press Releases
Few and Chosen:
Defining Mets Greatness Across the Eras
by Rusty Staub with Phil Pepe, Foreword by Keith Hernandez
From Casey Stengel's "Amazin's," the lovable losers of the early '60s, to the World Series champions of the '80s and the pennant contenders of today, the Mets have fielded some great players in their nearly half-century of existence. Of the multitude of talented men who have passed through Shea Stadium, Few and Chosen: Defining Mets Greatness Across the Eras by Rusty Staub (with Phil Pepe, foreword by Keith Hernandez), culls the best of the best.
Former Mets first baseman and first-class slugger Rusty Staub has seen them all - and played with or against many of them. So who is better qualified to pick the five best Mets players at every position, as well as the club's best managers? With so many great players in the relatively short existence of the franchise, the choices were anything but easy for Staub. Some of the more contentious of the debates include:
* World Series champion and Hall of Famer Gary Carter or Mets icon Mike Piazza as the best catcher in team history?
* Defensive whiz Bud Harrelson or all-around dynamo Jose Reyes at SS?
* All-time great Tom Seaver or the abbreviated brilliance of Dwight Gooden at starting pitcher?
* At manager, Gil Hodges and his "Miracle Mets" of '69 or Davey Johnson and the truly amazing Mets of 1986?
Few and Chosen possesses many surprises for Mets fans, with rankings that will raise a few eyebrows. But when readers see the empirical numbers next to analysis and commentary from a Mets icon they will understand that the ultimate roster for the Mets has finally been created.
About the Author:
Daniel Joseph (Rusty) Staub is many things to many people: gourmet chef, restaurateur, philanthropist, baseball player, and one of the most popular athletes in New York history. Born in New Orleans, Staub had a distinguished 23-year major-league career with the Houston Colt .45s/Astros, Montreal Expos, Detroit Tigers, and New York Mets, with which he served two tours of duty in 1972-75 and 1981-85. He is the founder and chairman of the board of the New York Police and Fire Widows and Children's Benefit Fun Foundation, Inc., president of the Rusty Staub Foundation, and continues his association with the Mets as a club ambassador.
Phil Pepe has covered sports in New York longer than the New York Mets have been in existence. Through his work with two newspapers, the New York World Telegram & Sun and the New York Daily News, he has covered many of the greatest moments in Mets' history. This is his eighth book in the Few and Chosen series.
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Contact: Josh Williams, Triumph Books, 312.252-1261, j.williams@triumphbooks.com